Multiple channel television sets that can receive a multiplicity of digital broadcast channels via terrestrial broadcasts, satellite or cable, are becoming popular. Very large numbers of channels can be transmitted by digital techniques, and so improved channel management systems are needed to enable the viewer to make an informed selection without having to surf all of the available channels. The television set can also be used to provide Internet access so it is desirable to provide a system which can bookmark individual web sites and pages that are of interest to the user.
Proposals have been made to display a programming guide on a display screen. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,123 concerns a system for retrieving and displaying programming information in response to selection of a category of programming information. Programming information is presented via a schedule display having a category display, a subcategory display and a program display. The category display displays an array of category tiles representing categories of programming information. The subcategory display comprises an array of subcategory tiles representing subcategories that are associated with the categories of the category display. The program display displays an array of program tiles that are associated with the subcategories of the subcategory display. A viewing panel extends along each of the displays for displaying one each of the category, subcategory, and program tiles. Classes of programming information are selected by scrolling the tiles of the associated displays until the desired class items are presented within the viewing panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,029 concerns a television reception controller that enables the viewer to choose a favorite program from among many broadcasting channels easily and swiftly. The controller displays labels of categories that are News, Movie, Sports, Politics and Music on the top row of the display screen and displays pictures of broadcasting channels of the leftmost category, which have been received in the last four weeks, in small frames in the leftmost column of the screen downwardly in the order of the frequency of reception. The controller responds to the horizontal movement of a cursor to rotate the category labels horizontally and responds to the vertical movement of the cursor on the small-frame pictures and the action of selection to display the picture of the selected broadcasting channel in the main frame of the screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,071 discloses an interactive program guide system. The program guide system has a logically flat navigator menu structure made up of program guide categories and selectable program guide options. The program guide categories correspond to fairly broad groups of program guide features. Selectable program guide options correspond to more specific program guide features. Each program guide category has associated selectable program guide options. Program guide categories may be displayed in a row across the top of the display screen. Selectable program guide options may be displayed in the same column as the program guide category with which they are associated. A highlight region may be positioned on one of the selectable program guide options. The selectable program guide options may be scrolled using a pair of vertical cursors. A select button allows the user to select a given selectable program option. For example, if the highlight is on the selectable program guide option “by time”, pressing the select button causes a control circuitry to display a time-ordered grid of television program listings on a monitor.